Savage Forest - Chapter 128.1
The rain that had been relentlessly pouring above her had stopped without her noticing.
A moment of silence settled.
A spiderweb that had fallen above her stretched all the way down to her neck.
It was a white spiderweb.
In an instant, goosebumps rose on her skin. Enya took a deep breath to stay calm and slowly lifted her head. And soon, she noticed it. Her breath came in a rush.
‘There’s spiderwebs everywhere…’
The scene was entirely white.
Spiderwebs densely surrounded the blue leaves, forming a giant, white wall. Before she realized it, she had ventured deep into the domain of the skull spider.
Her heart tightened in an instant.
Still, she couldn’t stop here. Enya took another slow breath, then bent her body down. Her fingertips gently brushed against the blades of grass that seemed to caress her feet.
‘Where is the skull spider?’
As she focused her mind and asked silently, she could feel the grass rising upwards naturally. It seemed as though it was pointing up.
Enya realized that this was the forest’s response.
‘I see.’
She looked up into the vast heights. She parted her lips and spoke aloud the forest’s answer.
“…It’s up there.”
The skull spider’s domain was covered in spiderwebs—a space solely for the colossal monster.
A breeze began to blow, and Enya’s short hair fluttered.
‘I need to climb up there.’
She had stepped forward with confidence, believing the skull spider would accept her, but in truth, Enya wasn’t certain at all. Just like how it had inflicted a serious wound on Eireke, the skull spider was likely to deal a severe blow to her as well.
As she took a deep breath, the words Reyhald had said came to her mind.
‘The skull spider reacts to blood. Even if it’s at the edge of the forest, it can smell the blood from the entrance and come for it…’
Enya reached out and touched the spiderweb.
She focused again, recalling the story Fiarca had told her about Eireke and the skull spider.
‘Eireke never knew how she communicated with the skull spider, but she always feared the process.’
Soon, a conclusion formed within her. Combining the advice from Fiarca and Reyhald, there was one definite way to provoke the skull spider.
…Blood.
Enya glanced down at Tarhan’s dagger.
‘I think I understand now.’
It felt like her eyes had been opened.
She felt the spiderweb in her hands. The texture of the web, which had no stickiness, felt like thick threads intertwined thousands of times.
Enya placed Tarhan’s dagger in her mouth.
Using both arms, she slowly began to climb the spiderweb.
“Huh…!”
After struggling a few times, she managed to climb the spiderweb properly, using her arms and legs. Outside, the pouring rain made it hard to even open her eyes, but within the skull spider’s web, no rain could reach her. In fact, it felt so cozy that it almost gave a sense of dryness.
She thought with a tense mind.
With the spiderwebs this dense, there’s no way the rain could get through…
Each step she took upward caused beads of sweat to form on her forehead and limbs. However, the muscles in her thighs and arms, strengthened since entering Nervana, were still holding her weight up.
How much had she climbed?
“Hah… Hah…”
Without thinking, she glanced downward.
A thick fog obscured the depth below, and the ground was completely out of sight. The sight made her gasp for breath, and her knees wobbled for a moment.
A wave of vertigo swept over her.
Her arms, which were supporting her body, began to tremble uncontrollably.
But she couldn’t stop. Enya shook her head and began moving her limbs again, pushing herself further up the spiderweb.
Zzingg—
At that moment, she felt a slight vibration through the web she was clinging to.
Enya gasped for breath and closed her eyes.
‘So, it’s here…’
That was all she could think.
As the vibration grew stronger, she looked up, but there was nothing there. Surprisingly, the tremors were coming from below.
A cold breeze rushed toward her chin. Enya quickly glanced down.
It felt as if time had stopped.
It was there.
A massive form, its body covered in thick, bristling hair.
It was slowly approaching her. Every time one of its eight legs touched the web, the vibration rippled up to where she was hanging. The skull spider was approaching from below, neither too fast nor too slow. It was only a few dozen steps away.
Her body froze. She had thought she wouldn’t be surprised, but seeing it in person made her react completely differently.
A sudden and intense inner conflict surged within her like an erupting volcano.
‘If I let go of the spiderweb and fall, at least I won’t have to face the skull spider with my eyes wide open.’
But she couldn’t do that.
Enya gritted her teeth. The muscles in her entire body tightened with tension.
The skull spider’s movements quickened. The monster had been advancing toward her without error and was growing steadily closer.
Enya’s heart pounded wildly.
The monster’s body grew larger in her sight. And only then did the parts that had been hidden by a veil begin to come into clearer view.
The skull spider’s eyes.
Eight cloudy eyes, as if veiled in milky fog.
When her bloodshot eyes locked with the skull spider’s unfocused ones, they were unlike the eyes of any other monster.
Enya was certain.
‘…That thing isn’t in its right mind.’
Enya thought.
It didn’t recognize her at all.